In Pak, liberals have nowhere to go

Zardari has only contempt for the liberals. He believes they have no base. He has found that they are as servile to his wife as are most leaders in the PPP to him. One evidence that emerged during Benazir’s two stints of Prime Ministership, he was an extra-constitutional authority — like Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency: not a single PPP leader even threatened to resign from the party in protest. Today, when Zardari is openly guiding the parliamentary wing of the party, he knows that he has Benazir behind him. The liberals, to their embarrassment, know that Benazir has sent word from abroad that they should ‘‘go to the hospital’’ where Zardari is confined and meet him.

To facilitate Zardari’s activities, General Pervez Musharraf’s government has provided him with a mobile phone. Not only that. It has relaxed restrictions on him so as to enable him to meet parties like the Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a conglomeration of six religious parties. The MMA has 45 seats and the Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), cat’s paw of the general and described as the King’s Party, has the largest number — 77 of the 272 contested seats.

However loud the denials of Musharraf and Benazir are, Zardari has become the communication channel between the two on the one hand and, on the other, between Benazir and the religious parties. Musharraf wants the PPP to support his PML-Q to lead the government. But Zardari wants first things first. He wants the cases against him and his wife withdrawn. He knows that it is necessary to get the green light from Musharraf. He also realises that his wife cannot return to Pakistan without the military’s nod. The bargaining has moved ahead. The fact that Zardari’s father has been allowed to go to America for medical treatment shows which way the wind is blowing.

The military does not like Benazir or Nawaz Sharif. But it prefers the former for two reasons. One, she is not as bothersome as Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted from the prime ministership. Two, she welcomed Musharraf’s coup and even sent feelers that she would cooperate with his government. It is another matter that he was then riding a high horse.

Benazir’s ‘‘pragmatic approach’’ to the military is well known. Although it executed her father, it found her quite cooperative when seeking to come to power. As prime minister, she had no compunction in going to the military headquarters to discuss state matters. When she was sworn in she had even agreed to the military’s choice of people for heading ministries of foreign affairs and finance. Zardari has more or less succeeded in stitching the torn connection between the military and Benazir again. Benazir has indicated her desire to do business with the military, particularly after her visit to Washington, where she found America supporting Musharraf to the hilt for his backing the US against the Al-Qaeda.

Her only problem is ego. She does not want to play second fiddle to the religious parties or the PML-Q, which Musharraf himself guides. At one time she had offered her party’s support to the government. Musharraf chose from outside based on issues. But Zardari reportedly intervened to say that it was dependent on the withdrawal of cases against him and his wife and on rescinding the order of her arrest on charges of corruption.

Left to Musharraf, he would have his PML-Q in the saddle. He might still have it with the PPP support if the ‘‘deal’’ is struck. But having the religious parties in the wilderness does not sound good when the Al-Qaeda is far from eliminated. On the other hand, the religious parties want him to wind up the US bases in Pakistan and adopt an anti-Washington posture which, according to them, will go down well with the people of Pakistan. How can he afford to be seen on the side of Jamait-e-Ulema Islam chief Fazlur Rehman, who has won on the plank of a Taliban-style government at Islamabad? Incidentally, Rehman is the son of Maulana Mufti Mahmood who, as a member of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam Hind, participated in the Quit India movement in 1942 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.